The Successor
by Jason Stargazer
Summary: Set 500 years after the show. An Air Nomad named Dili is the new Avatar. Toph is the only one alive who remembers the hundred-year war, or so she thinks...The world is at peace, and the Air Nomads have returned. But someone has plans to bring it all down.


This is my first fanfic here. I hope that everyone likes it!

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Chapter 1: Nightmare

Dili rose from her bed as sunbeams crept in through the window. She gazed around her room- before she lived here, it had been the home to many air nomads, and soon would belong to yet another. She made the bed that she would no longer sleep in, smoothed the sheets that would no longer cover her, and closed the window that she would no longer look through. She changed into fresh clothes for the new day and prepared for her new life.

With her airbending training coming to a close, it was time for Dili to leave the place of her childhood and continue her education as the Avatar. Next she would be leaving for the Southern Water Tribe, to study at the great Katara Institute of Waterbending and Healing. The journey was to begin today, and Dili didn't want to miss it.

Or did she? As Dili walked down the halls of the Eastern Air Temple, she marveled at what she would be leaving behind. The great works of art by her people, the majesty of the sky bison reared at this temple, the grand architecture- she would have to leave it all. She stopped to look at one particular fresco- it told the darkest story in Air Nomad history. In gruesome imagery it depicted the attack and persecution of Air Nomads by the Fire Nation, under the ruthless leadership of Fire Lord Sozin. After a century, it was thought that the Air Nomads were lost to history, and the whole world had fallen to the Fire Nation- until Avatar Aang reappeared. Under his leadership, the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom had rallied and defeated the Fire Nation. A new, just Fire Lord was put in power, and he revealed to the Avatar long-lost descendants of captives taken during the purge of Air Nomads. Their way of life was lost, but the Air Nomad blood still flowed in them. Led by Aang, they had reestablished their culture.

That was over five centuries ago. Now she, Avatar Dili, was the first Air Nomad avatar since Aang. She had a huge legacy to live up to. But there was one last thing to do today, before she set out. Guru Taiwa had requested a meeting with her, so she went to his chambers.

Dili knocked on his door, and heard "Come in". Her hand pushed open the plain door- gurus were known for their modesty- and entered.

"Welcome, Avatar Dili. Sit down," Taiwa said, motioning to a cushion on the floor. Dili examined Taiwa as she sat- she had never met him in person before. He was a lanky, thin elder, win a long grey beard and brown skin. Of all the prolific gurus, Taiwa was the most renowned- rumor had it that he was the reincarnation of the great Guru Pathik.

"Do you know why you are here?" Taiwa questioned.

"No," Dili answered.

"Well, I have spoken with the council of masters, and they agree that it is time to try spiritual resurfacing with you," Taiwa explained.

"Spiritual resurfacing? You mean meditating to try and contact a past life?" Dili balked. "But I don't think I am ready!"

"Dili, you must be able to contact you past lives for advice in your duties." Taiwa said. "Now, drink this"

He handed Dili a bowl of yellow juice. Dili looked at it, sniffed it, and almost turned up her nose. 'I hate onion-and-banana juice," she thought as she forced it down her throat.

"Good. Now, close your eyes and meditate. Breathe easily- in and out. Focus on your memories- start with your most recent, then move backwards" Taiwa urged.

Over the next hour, Taiwa moved through her memories- the revelation that she was the Avatar, her training, a secret love affair, her friends and rivalries. Finally, she reached memories from years she could not remember before. She even reached her birth- but what she saw horrified her.

She was in a nursery shortly after birth. People had just left, and she caught a few words, and one asking "But which is the next Avatar"? Then a horrible feeling came over her. She moved her body in a way no baby should know to do, and went over to the only other baby in the nursery. Then, using airbending, she suffocated him.

Tears formed in Dili's eyes because of this scene. But she kept moving back into her memories- the process could not be stopped. Next, she was adult-sized again, and was drifting in icy cold water. Dili figured that this was her past life. But it was a female body, and the past Avatar was a male…

The waters churned around her. Her body was waterbending, forming an icy sphere around her. Then it seemed as if time froze- until the ice broke. She was now much deeper, but rushed for the surface, for air- and drowned before she could make it.

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"Laoshi? Avatar Laoshi? Is that you?" Taiwa asked, with a pleading tone. "Please, tell me that I can speak to you again…"

Dili rose from the pillow, her eyes glowing. A sadistic smirk tinged her face, and she lashed out at Taiwa, blue fire issuing from her hand. Taiwa was slammed into the wall, then crumpled on the floor, smoldering.

Dili saw all of this, but could not believe she was doing it. 'This must be another memory, somehow,' she thought. She felt as she had during the baby memory.

'No, this is not a memory,' came an alien thought, from a consciousness not her own. 'I am Azula, your past life.'


End file.
